


The Past in the Future

by Marcus_S_Lazarus



Series: The Twilight Storm [11]
Category: Doctor Who, Twilight Series - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:34:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23547727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marcus_S_Lazarus/pseuds/Marcus_S_Lazarus
Summary: The Doctor and Bella pay a visit to an old friend in the far future.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor & Bella Swan
Series: The Twilight Storm [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1694503
Kudos: 2





	The Past in the Future

As we emerged from the TARDIS, I was initially disappointed at the relatively barren nature of our surroundings; after the Doctor's earlier description, I had been expecting something more than a bunch of rocks with a thick forest a short walk away.

It was an impressive view, of course, but it wasn't something that I couldn't see on Earth, and after some of the landscapes we'd seen in our past travels, mountains and a forest didn't exactly rank.

"What are we here for?" I asked, looking curiously at the Doctor as he smiled at the sight around us.

"Just somewhere that I've been meaning to check out for a while," the Doctor said with a smile as he looked at me, before he turned his attention to the forest. "Anyway, come on; we've got a bit of a way to go yet."

"And we're walking because…?" I asked, looking at him inquiringly.

"I want to see what the surroundings are like; it's a little thing, but it ties back to my last visit here," the Doctor said, before walking off in a manner that suggested to me I wasn't going to get anything more out of him until he was ready to share it, leaving me with nothing else to do but walk after him.

After we'd been walking for a few moments in silence- the Doctor keeping up just enough of a pace to stay ahead of me and limit my chances to ask him why he had come here without actually going too far ahead-, I decided to focus on enjoying the surroundings; the forest we were now in might not be that different from Earth, but there was still something appealing about it, providing a welcome opportunity for a calmer environment rather than the relative chaos we sometimes had to deal with…

I soon spotted a large city out in front of us, reaching up to the sky with the majestic scale that pretty much perfectly fit what I thought cities from the future should look like, with gleaming white buildings. I couldn't see any sign of vehicles gathered around it or flying anywhere- I'd seen some interesting flying cars during our visit to the future Earth after our time on Arkheon, so I knew they existed-, but it could be that the builders of this city had just decided not to go that route…

"HALT!" a voice suddenly yelled, the Doctor and I instantly obeying the instruction as we found ourselves surrounded by a group of people dressed in black outfits, surprisingly carrying no obvious weapons despite their appearance making me think of guards.

Both men and women were dressed in simple dark outfits, presenting a straightforward appearance at first glance, but closer inspection revealed that they also had various minor differences in their respective costumes, ranging from some with shorter sleeves to one wearing what looked like a long coat rather than the more standard 'jumpsuit' the others were wearing.

"Hello," the Doctor said, smiling warmly at the new arrivals. "I take it you're here to take us to your leaders?"

"Yes," one of the men said, nodding at the Doctor and indicating the path behind them. "If you will?"

Smiling in acceptance of this new situation, the Doctor walked after our new guides, leaving me to walk anxiously after him and hope that he wasn't leading us somewhere too dangerous. With our new guides to show us the way, as opposed to the Doctor's more casual wandering, it didn't take long for us to reach the city, being led through the large gates and into one of the main buildings. After walking through the building and up various stairs, we were shown into a large room that was virtually empty apart from a desk in the centre of the room, a man sitting solemnly behind it. He was obviously an old man, dressed in a long dark robe with white hair, but his skin was surprisingly wrinkle-free despite his obvious age, and what I could see of his body seemed to be in good condition.

"So, you're the new passengers?" he said, looking curiously at us with a slight smile.

"Not quite," the Doctor said, smiling warmly at the man in front of us. "Hello, Steven Taylor."

"What?" the man said, looking at the Doctor in confusion. "Do I… know you?"

"You did once," the Doctor confirmed, still smiling at the other man. "Come on, you believed who I was when we met up in the Death Zone when I was wearing that cricket stuff; is it so hard to believe that I'm still me? What happened to that time viewer thing the Elders were showing off to us that time; you're not telling me you _never_ tried to use that again?"

"It wasn't really practical when we had to start conserving energy…" the man said, looking increasingly uncertain as he studied the Doctor. "It's… it's really you? Doctor?"

"That's me," the Doctor said, smiling as he walked up to the desk to shake the older man's hand, still smiling at him in approval. "You're looking well, Steven."

"And you're looking… _really_ young," Steven said, looking at the Doctor in surprise as he stood up. "Do you just… get younger every time you… do that thing?"

"Every time I change, you mean?" the Doctor said, smiling slightly at Steven. "Well, I've been through a few variations- some can be smaller or less physically capable than others, after all; you can't always be sure what you're going to get, after all-, but generally I'm physically younger after I change than I was before."

"Some people have all the luck…" Steven said, smiling slightly grimly at the Doctor before the grin became warmer. "After last time, I didn't actually think I'd see you again…"

"Well, it's a big universe with lots on, but there's only so many places you can visit; I was bound to come back eventually," the Doctor said with a grin. "By the way, this is my current companion, Bella Swan; Bella, this is Steven Taylor, an old and trusted friend."

For a moment, as Steven looked at me, I briefly noted a strange, thoughtful expression on his face, as though he was trying to place something, but the moment soon passed and he simply stepped forward to shake my hand with a slight smile.

"Good to meet you, Bella," he said, smiling at me reassuringly.

"Uh… good to meet you too," I said with a smile. "Your city is… very impressive."

"I just inherited control of it, really; all the hard work was done before I ever came here," Steven Taylor said with a shrug, his expression grim at the dark events he was discussing. "When we arrived here, the planet's population was divided between the city residents and the savages. The residents maintained their power by draining the life energy from the savages and using it to either rejuvenate themselves or power their equipment; it worked as a concept, but I think we can all agree that the morality was questionable at best."

"You mean… they really killed _people_ for a _power source_?" I said, horrified at the thought.

The scale of death that must have been needed to power something like this city…

"We were able to make an impression when the original Elder acquired some of the Doctor's morality when he attempted to drain his life-energy and realised what he was doing, and the savages actually had a strong creative history that had simply been suppressed over the years; it gave them something to offer the current dynamic," Steven explained, looking at me with a slight smile. "When we destroyed the energy-draining equipment, the Doctor nominated me to stay behind as a mediator to help them build a new society without that technology, and… well, here I am."

"And you seem to be doing well," the Doctor said, smiling at the other man as he indicated the room around us.

"I've been able to offer some alternative power sources that we can use, and the fact that the work to make the city has all been done already helped, but some people still resent what we did," Steven said, looking grimly at the two of us. "The former savages have provided some interesting creative alternatives, but there's still a lot of work to do here; some people preferred the ease of the way things were rather than how comparatively harder it is to get by now…"

"There's always some people who prefer the way things were," the Doctor said with a shrug. "Still, you seem to be doing well enough; getting all this together couldn't have been easy, after all."

"It's helped by the fact that they all respect me," Steven said. "I officially dismantled the post of 'Elder' a long time ago to get rid of those old mistakes, and they mostly govern themselves right now; I'm mainly in power these days partly as a symbolic gesture and partly because nobody else wants to have to deal with the 'burden' of replacing me."

"You're here because _they_ want you here," I said, surprising myself with the certainty in my voice as I looked at him. "They wouldn't have asked you to stay if they didn't think you could do it."

"And I wouldn't have recommended you accept if I didn't feel the same way," the Doctor said, smiling at Steven. "You could be a stubborn fellow at times, Steven, but you were always stubborn for the right reasons; you needed proof of what I was telling you, you wanted to do the right thing…"

As the Doctor's voice trailed off, I noticed a solemn expression on his face, as though he was remembering something, but he shook it off and looked at Steven with a smile. "The point is, even if you're primarily a figurehead right now, you're a person they all trust to lead you; that's what matters most right now."

Looking at Steven, I had to agree with the Doctor's assessment of him; he'd had a difficult task in front of him when he'd taken on his leadership role, but he'd clearly taken on the responsibilities involved and coped with them as well as anyone could expect.

The fact that Steven had accomplished all this when he was only human was impressive enough, but the idea that he'd done all this while helping two civilisations cope with a way of life that actually _resisted_ the offer ofimmortality (Or at least an extended lifespan)…

It hadn't taken me long to appreciate the opportunities that travelling with the Doctor gave me, but the idea that I could continue to make a difference after I left him, without him there to help me…

I didn't think I was going to leave him to lead an entire civilisation, but the thought that something like that was possible was still enough to make me feel a lot better about this new glimpse of my future.

The day might come when I'd leave the Doctor, but if Steven and Sarah were anything to go by, I'd leave him feeling far more comfortable about my place in the world as me, rather than worrying about who I was with or anything like that.

I still wondered slightly about the brief hint of… _something_ … in Steven's eyes when he'd seen me, but as he didn't look at me that way again as he invited the two of us to a meal to discuss how this civilisation had developed since the Doctor's visit, I decided to ignore it and focus on enjoying myself; I was here to meet an old friend of the Doctor's, and I was going to take the opportunity to relax.

Travelling with the Doctor might be incredible, but it was nice to have the chance to find ourselves somewhere where we wouldn't have to worry about thwarting the latest threat _and_ talk with an old friend of his into the bargain.


End file.
